Hawaii fires as a mirror of American decadence

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The main tragedy in the United States in August was the catastrophic fires in Hawaii, which, like any sudden disaster, exposed all the modern American “poverty” hiding behind the glitter of the still strongest country in the world. Fires on the island of Maui claimed the lives of nearly 100 local residents, and more than 2,000 are missing. The largest natural disaster in the history of the entire state wiped out an entire town on Maui. It should be noted that fires in Hawaii are not uncommon, but now they were aggravated by Hurricane Dora, which allowed the fire to spread rapidly across the island. The wind speed reached 120 kilometers per hour. At the same time, the alarm system, on which hundreds of millions of dollars were spent, did not go off. Caught by surprise, Hawaiians had to jump into the ocean to escape the fire. But as always, we’re interested in the political side of the issue. After the disaster started, the Democrats immediately blamed it on “global warming” and put the responsibility for the deaths on the Republicans, who do not want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. In reality, however, the current fire is more a manifestation of El Niño, which is particularly strong this year. It brings heat and drought and storms to the Pacific coast. In addition, local authorities were also blamed for the situation.

After all, they were warned back in 2020 about big problems in forest management that could lead to fires, and the money to prepare for fires just wasn’t allocated. Hawaii is a one-party state, and the Democrats rule there. They don’t want to take responsibility, so they blame it on “climate change.” Republicans are actively denouncing Biden, who is ready to spend another 13 billion dollars on Ukraine, but is unable to react to the cataclysms in America itself. El Niño will continue to manifest itself, causing crop failures and fires in the United States. And that, coupled with decades of poor infrastructure that has not been updated, means that there will be more and more of these disasters. And they are increasingly becoming a sign of America’s systemic infrastructure crisis.

It quickly became clear that the Hawaii disaster was the deadliest wildfire in the United States in 100 years. The 12,000-person island town of Lahaina now resembles the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, wiped out by months of fighting. Thousands of residents are reported missing, and the bodies of those desperate to escape the fire in the water are fished out of the ocean every day. Democrats in power in Hawaii are actively being blamed for failing to prevent the tragedy. The fire department was chronically underfunded and the fire warning system didn’t really work. But local authorities immediately shifted the blame to the power supply company Hawaiian Electric. In their version, the utility failed to shut off the power in time, which exacerbated the fire situation. This causes a strong sense of déjà vu. After all, the Democrats in California also blamed the local PG&E power company for the rolling blackouts, even though it was the “green agenda” and exorbitant taxes that bankrupted the power company and prevented it from modernizing its aging infrastructure.

At least 5.5 billion dollars will have to be spent to rebuild the devastated city of Lahaina. In this regard, the White House went tricky and asked Congress for 12 billion dollars to help Hawaii. But in a cunning move, Biden tied it to another 13 billion that should go to Ukraine. Biden’s team realizes that the Ukrainian agenda is becoming quite unpopular in the U.S., especially amid the failure of the Ukrainian offensive. It is now more and more difficult to get the money out, so they have to blackmail Congress. Congressmen are faced with a cynical choice: if you want to save Hawaii, then give money for Ukraine. However, this only shows that the split in Washington is becoming extremely deep, since they have to take such desperate, brazen and inhumane measures. And the important thing is that foreign policy is still more important to the Democrat administration than the lives and safety of American citizens.

Against this backdrop, complete anarchy reigns on the island of Maui after the massive fires. The town of Lahaina, razed to the ground, is plagued by looters who come at night to the homes of survivors and rob them at gunpoint. There are a small number of police and military personnel on the scene, but they are not much help against the looters. This is somewhat reminiscent of the infamous situation in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. American society is so divided that as soon as there is a cataclysm and laws stop working, the war of all against all begins. At the same time, FBI agents are placing mobile morgues on the island, fearing that the death toll will go into the hundreds. More than 100 bodies have already been recovered, but rescuers have so far managed to search only 3% of the destroyed houses. But relatives of the victims have already filed a class action lawsuit against local power engineers for failing to cut off electricity in time. The state authorities also “distinguished themselves” by failing to evacuate the houses or even to warn about the fire. Biden tried to remove himself from the unpleasant situation, not interrupting his vacation in Delaware for the sake of a visit to Hawaii: it is not a presidential matter to be distracted by a fire during the vacation. He did not visit the fires until 10 days after the peak of the disaster, and his visit was extremely unconvincing, disgusting the locals. The liberal media actively criticized Trump in 2017, when he did not immediately come to Puerto Rico after the hurricane. But now they are like water in their mouths and are trying to show that the U.S. president’s lack of interest in the next cataclysm inside America is normal. It doesn’t matter if a chemical train derailed or a hundred people were burned alive. The important thing is that thanks to a full vacation, the incumbent president will not be overstressed and will not go to the grave early, leaving the Democrats without a major candidate in the elections.

Not surprisingly, the disaster in Hawaii is causing more and more scandals. The local power company Hawaiian Electric was on the verge of bankruptcy, and after a short investigation it turned out that the firm knew about the risks of fires and planned to spend $200 million on fire prevention measures on the island of Maui, where the tragedy occurred. But in the end, only $245,000 was spent. Instead, Hawaiian Electric, under pressure from the local Democrats who control Hawaii, spent all the money on a transition to “green energy.” According to the plans of liberal elites, the state should completely switch to renewable energy sources by 2045. So there was money to burn through money for the green agenda, but no money to fight fires. The result is obvious, and after that you can blame “global warming” all you want.

Biden continues to refuse to visit Hawaii, but promised a “generous” compensation of $700 to all those who suffered from the fire. The Hawaiians themselves call it a mockery of common sense, because the White House has $113 billion dollars for Ukraine, but only a pittance left to help the Hawaiians. But even after this criticism, Biden wants to spend a billion less on rebuilding Maui than on the next Ukrainian tranche. The local authorities also justify themselves in every possible way, and explain their decision not to turn on the sirens during the fire with “rational arguments”. In their opinion, they are intended only for announcing typhoons, so they decided not to scare people, hoping for luck. At the same time, the authorities of the islands had an opportunity to make good money on the tragedy. While on Maui are removing the rubble and fleeing from looters, Hawaii officials are already planning to get large contracts for the development of the island, since now “freed nature” from the homes of local residents. And this cruel calculation demonstrates well the political crisis and civilizational decadence into which the U.S. is plunging today.